Suction flute mounted wiper device for drafting rolls



March 11, 1969 w. w. AVERA 3,431,717

SUCTION FLUTE MOUNTED WIPER DEVICE FOR DRAFTING ROLLS Filed Sept. 12, 1966 IN VEN TOR.

LJLg lA/lLLLam \A/ Avera. mfLQ/ QOPUJQW United States Patent M 3,431,717 SUCTION FLUTE MOUNTED WIPER DEVICE FOR DRAFTING ROLLS William W. Avera, Winston-Salem, N.C., assignor to The Bahnson Company, Winston-Salem, N.C., a corporation of North Carolina Filed Sept. 12, 1966, Ser. No. 578,829

US. Cl. 57--34.5 Int. Cl. D01h 11/00 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to roll clearing devices for drafting rolls of textile machines such as Spinning frames, roving frames, drawing frames, and the like and which also incorporate associated suction cleaning systems compris ing suction flutes disposed closely adjacent the strands at the discharge side of, the drafting rolls so as to collect the ends of any strands which may become broken as the strands are drawn through and between the roll sets. The drafting rolls on a roll stand of a typical textile frame are arranged in cascaded pairs of upper and lower contacting rolls between which the textile strand is drawn in succession. Each pair of rolls, in a cascaded arrangement of, for example, three roll pairs is comprised of a top roll covered with a smooth resilient material and a mating bottom steel roll having a longitudinally ribbed periphery. These bottom, ribbed rolls, and especially that of the last roll pair through which the textile strand passes, tend to accumulate stray textile fibers, and a build-up of these fibers on the grooved bottom roll must be avoided for otherwise the desired drafting process suffers. Unless some mechanical and automatic way is used to remove these fibers as they collect on the surface of the grooved roll, the roll must be hand picked at rather frequent intervals. Since a very large, number of grooved rolls are included for each textile frame, it will be obvious that hand cleaning is quite costly from a standpoint of labor.

To avoid the necessity for using manual labor to periodically clear stray fibers off the surfaces of the grooved rolls, various wiper arrangements have been developed. Some of these are in the form of felted rolls which rotate in contact with the driven grooved rolls and take off the stray fibers; others are in the form of stationary wipers which are held in contact with the surface of the roll. The stationary wipers are customarily made from an essentially frictionless but flexible material such as chlorinated rubber which drags against the surface of the rotating grooved roll so as to continuously agitate any stray fibers which may collect on the roll surface and hence prevent them from firmly seating themselves. Because of the agitation provided by the Wiper, the stray fibers generally fall free by gravity in combination with the slight windage effect which prevails at the drafting zone and reach the effective suction inlet zones provided by the broken-end collection apertures which are spaced along the suction flutes located adjacent the bottom, grooved rolls. Each suction flute spans a plurality of roll sets, and the flutes are manifolded into a suction header extending longitudinally of the textile frame so as to thus carry away all stray fibers which enter the flutes.

3,431,717 Patented Mar. 11, 1969 The present invention is more specifically directed to an improved wiper of the drag type and to the manner in which it is supported on the suction flute. In accordance with the invention, the wiper element takes the form of a sleeve of flexible material which is releasably secured to a novel mount structure which in turn is permanently secured to the surface of the suction flute. The mount structure is coextensive in length with the flexible sleeve and features a two-part snap-in construction comprised of interfitting male and female members having the same length as the sleeve and between which a longitudinal portion of the sleeve is frictionally clamped. The improved construction avoids the necessity for using screws or the like to hold the male and female retaining members together which has an inherent disadvantage of requiring the overall length of the sleeve mounting structure to be longer than the sleeve itself if the screws are not passed through the sleeve itself and which thereby prevents a sleeve end to be located at the very end of the suction flute which is often necessary.

The snap-in" mode of fastening the drag sleeve in place on its mount structure has the further advantage of saving time when it becomes necessary to temporarily unclamp the sleeve from its mount and rotate the same slightly so that a fresh, unworn portion of the surface of the sleeve can be dragged against the surface of the grooved roll.

The foregoing as well as other objects and advantages inherent in the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof and from the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of a section of a conventional suction flute with a pair of the improved drag type roll wiper-s mounted thereon;

FIG. 2 is a view of the flute and drag type wiper in end elevation;

FIG. 3 is an end elevation showing the suction flute and wiper in dragging contact with the surface of a grooved bottom roll of the front-most pair of drafting rolls of a cascaded roll set consisting of three pair of rolls; and

FIG. 4 is an exploded view showing the drag sleeve, and its relation to the male and female parts of the mounting structure prior to clamping of the sleeve in its mount.

With reference now to the drawings, the invention is seen to be applied to a conventional drafting roll arrangement which comprises three pairs of top and bottom rolls 11', 2-2 and 3-3 arranged in cascade such that the textile strand 4 being worked by the rolls is drawn through and between the roll pairs in sucession. The top rolls 1, 2 and 3 have smooth surfaces and the bottom rolls 1', 2 and 3' are grooved longitudinally so as to establish an interrupted periphery which aids in the drafting process. In accordance with the invention, the improved wiper organization is dragged against the surface of one or more of the grooved rolls of each roll set, and is supported on the suction flute 5 and centered in relation to the suction inlet aperture 5a correlated to that roll set. In the illustrated embodiment, the Wiper is associated with the front-most bottom roll 1' only and is seen to be constituted by a sleeve 6 made from a flexible material such-as chlorinated rubber which is co-extensive in length with the roll and drags against the surface of the roll as the latter rotates, thus to continuously agitate any stray fibers j which may tend to collect upon the surface of the roll and cause them to drop downwardly as indicated in FIG. 3 and reach the influence of the suction zone of the inlet 5a whereby they then enter the latter and are thus carried away.

The mounting structure for flexible sleeve 6 is constituted by two, interfitting male and female parts 7 and 8 which are relatively rigid and can be made from any suitable material such as an extruded plastic, e.g. nylon. The upper side of the female part 8 is seen to be provided with an upwardly opening, rounded groove 8a which extends longitudinally from one end of the part to the other. The lower side 8b of the female part 8 is arcuately configured to match the curvature of the suction flute and is attached to the latter by any suitable means, preferably by an adhesive to avoid the necessity for drilling screw holes through the part '8 and flute 5.

The male part 7 which is coextensive in length with the female part 8 is seen to be provided with a rounded tongue 7a which also extends from one end of the part to the other. Moreover, the male and female mounting parts 7 and 8 are also coextensive in length with the wiper sleeve 6, and a longitudinal portion of this sleeve is clamped between the tongue 7a and groove 8a when the tongue is snapped into place in its mating groove.

The exploded view of FIG. 4 illustrates the sequence involved in clamping the wiper sleeve in place on its mounting structure. As seen in this view, the wiper sleeve 6 has an initially cylindrical configuration in its undistorted state. The sleeve is placed in clamping position over the groove 8a, the male part 7 is inserted through the sleeve into its proper position opposite groove 8a and then the tongue 70: of the male part 7 is forced downwardly into the groove so as to clamp a longitudinal portion of the sleeve between it and the groove. The dimensions of tongue 7a and groove 8a are preferably so chosen that the tongue will hold the sleeve in its clamped position with a satisfactorily clamping force but which will not be i too great to permit removal of the male part when one part of the surface of the wiper sleeve becomes worn and it becomes necessary to temporarily unclamp it from its mount and rotate it slightly prior to re-clamping so that a fresh, unworn portion of the sleeve surface can be brought into dragging engagement with the grooved drafting roll. That is to say, the sides of the groove 8a are forced elastically apart to a slight extent as the tongue 7a and the wall portion of sleeve 6 are inserted, thus establishing an elastic self-holding clamping connection between the male and female parts.

This snap-in and snap-out clamping arrangement for the drag sleeve on its mounting structure thus obviously enables one to very quickly change the position of the sleeve so as to present a fresh, unworn drag surface to the grooved drafting roll. Moreover, since the improved construction eliminates the necessity for using screws or the like to clamp the male and female parts together, it is not necessary to extend the male and female parts beyond the ends of the sleeve which would be required to accommodate such screws. Consequently, the improved construction enables the male and female mounting parts to be made coextensive in length with the drag sleeve and hence the wiper structure can be so located on the suction flute that one end of the drag sleeve and its mounting structure will be flush with the end of the suction flute.

I claim:

1. The combination with a textile machine including a drafting roll and a suction flute located parallel to the drafting roll, of a wiper structure for dragging against the surface of said drafting roll, said wiper structure comprising a drag sleeve of flexible material in contact with the drafting roll surface and a mount for said sleeve constituted by self-holding interfitting male and female parts coextensive in length with said sleeve and between which said sleeve is held, said female part being secured to said suction flute and including spaced elastic side walls establishing a longitudinally extending groove and said male part including a longitudinally extending tongue, said side walls being forced elastically apart upon insertion of said tongue and a longitudinally extending wall portion of said sleeve generally parallel to themselves into said groove thereby to effect a releasable clamp for said sleeve.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said groove and said tongue interfitting therewith have a rounded configuration in transverse direction.

3. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said suction flute has a cylindrical configuration and wherein the side of said female part of the mount for said drag sleeve opposite to said groove has a concave surface which engages the cylindrical surface of said suction flute and is adhered thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 624,503 5/ 1899 Krause 24264 1,233,932 7/1917 Swafford. 1,634,622 7/1927 Menges 24243.9 2,204,928 6/ 1940 Culver 24-264 X 3,196,476 7/1965 Morrow et al 15256.52 3,200,013 8/1965 Morrow et a1. 15256.51 X 3,205,547 9/1965 Riekse 24243.9 3,217,690 11/ 1965 Mihalisin 24243.9 X 3,318,224 5/1967 Bohanon 24243.9 X 3,340,577 9/1967 Morrow et al. l5-256.51 X 46,290 2/1865 Ball 15-147 1,041,172 10/1912 Roth et a1. 15-245 FOREIGN PATENTS 982,361 2/1965 Great Britain.

WALTER A. SCHEEL, Primary Examiner.

LEON G. MACHLIN, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

